New Pool Owner - Chemistry & Procedure Questions

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Pictures below!

Wife had fun out with friends, and little man was up and super active until 11PM, so I didn't get to measure or dose between the 1PM reading and 11PM (but I did empty the skimmer basket a few times, and took some pictures during his snack and dinner.)

5/14/15 - 11PM :batman:
FC - 18
CC - 0

Added 1 gal of 12.5% liquid chlorine

5/15/15 - 7AM
FC - 24
CC - 0

Now that I have that out of the way... PICTURES!

Here you can see the pool light and, if you look carefully, the bottom of the deep end. It looks like I did a good job blindly vacuuming. Don't know how I never noticed the pool light before. I guess I need to take that out for cleaning this weekend.


Far shot of the scum that settled and accumulated in the one corner during the drain/fill sessions, and I have not yet vacuumed. (Later today, I promise!)


Close up of the same stuff, looks like silt/fuzz, I don't see any obvious leaves or solid debris.


Some more scum on the ramp down to the deep end. So, I did fail when blindly vacuuming that area.
 
What a fast one! I bet the stuff is going to be "fun" to get out.

Go slow. Kind of sneak up on it and suck it in a little at a time otherwise it might clog up the hose.

It is so nice to see someone do the SLAM the right way. Test, dose, test, dose. You did a great job!

Good luck getting the light out. It is very important that you do.

Your pool will clear up fast once you get all of that stuff out.

You did a great job going at it blind. That is not much stuff missed at all!

I can't wait to see your little man floating in the pool! THAT is going to be fun to see!

Kim
 
Patrick_B said:
Yea, you wanna get all that out, and then backwash it out asap..
Click to expand...

I did as soon as I was able to wrap up work and get to the pool yesterday. Brushed and vacuumed twice, hopefully much more today, and I have a helper coming.

Updated numbers
5/15/15-2:45 pm
FC-20
CC-0
Added ~ half gal of 12.5%

5/15/15-6:30 pm
FC-22
CC-0
Added other half of the last jug

5/15/15-9 pm
FC-24.5
CC-0

5/16/15-7:30 am
FC-24.5
CC-0


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
You bet...

Looking good there, just keep doing what you are. This one is going to be easier than I was first imagining. Good though, and really good you are able to get that 12.5% so easily. I really wish I could. How bad is the rain?
 
Sorry for the radio silence, it turned out to be a busy weekend. :sleep:

First, progress so far. (In pretty graph format)


I've passed at least 2, if not all three SLAM criteria. *Note below in "Story Time" on the "Crystal Clear Water"
OCLT - Passed!
CC has never registered, I add the 5 drops after finishing the FC test, and it never turns pink
Crystal Clear Water - maybe, but I'm gonna see if it can get clearer.


Story Time: My parents came over on Saturday and helped with cleaning and pulling the solar cover out of the garage. I pulled the pool light out and scrubbed it meticulously. (It was nasty! In my previous job as a field Engineer, I have been to waste water treatment plants, hot dog and sausage processing plants, livestock slaughter facilities, and various other disgusting and foul smelling places. I even witnessed the birth of my son with no issue, and removing that light made me gag slightly. )

More scrubbing and Vacuuming on Sunday, but reduced from Saturday so I could do some lawn work and play with my son a bit.

I was amazed at how clear the water got just from Thursday morning to the afternoon when starting the SLAM, but didn't notice much difference between then and Sunday morning. I was starting to wonder if I had too high of a hope for "Crystal Clear Water" and that I might already have it as clear as it would go. Sunday afternoon was an eye-opener, though. I could clearly see every nook and cranny of the floor of the deep end!

So, I'm going to let things go a bit longer, just in case the water can get any clearer, and I plan on adding some DE (cellulose fiber DE alternative, to be exact) to my sand filter this afternoon to help get the very fine stuff.

Without any more delay, here are some pictures!


After cleaning on Saturday.

You can kind of make out the bottom of the deep end.




Sunday afternoon - So Clear!

You can see the deep end very clearly, even though the pictures don't do it justice.



There is one big spot here, and a few other small ones I didn't take pictures of, where I think the liner might be permanently stained.



I don't care if we have a sub-60 highs forecast for this week, once I'm done SLAMming, I'm jumping in this thing! :snorkle::paddle: (After the FC level drops to a safe value, of course.)
 

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Looking great man, you're nearly there. Just push it as you have until it's clear as Richard describes, and of course the other two SLAM criteria ad met. Nice work! (Sorry about the gross light fixture) :lol:
 
TAILS!
(Though I couldn't manage to get a decent picture of it. All the more reason to buy a new lens for my DSLR.)

I will let the FC drift down to optimal level and take a full battery of tests.

For now, an updated chart of the SLAM progress. (More sun yesterday than expected, and the wife wasn't able to test until after the little man went down for a nap, so we drifted under 20 again, but the CC is still 0, and we still passed OCLT again last night, so I think we're good!




Also, for S&G, I put together a chart of my CYA lowering process.

 
kimkats said:
You could see it in your deep end????????? SWEET!!!!!

I love the graphs and am in awe of how you do it!

Kim
Click to expand...

I think the only limiting factor to telling the coin flip was my terrible eyes, it took a good bit of squinting to make out the Florida back of the quarter. (I should have used a non-state quarter, in hindsight.)

Part of my job is presenting very large budget requests to upper management at my company. If you don't learn your way around excel, and making charts look snazzy, you don't get funding. I'm far from an expert, but I know more than most people I know.
 
Thought I'd add some more pictures.

Quarter in the deep end, from afar. (cell phone picture) (I skimmed a TON of those maple tree "helicopter" seeds after the pictures)


Quarter, zoomed as much as the cell would let me. (Never pulled the good pic off my DSLR, but you still can't see the tails from that, either. I think it was lack of sharp focus.


Pool at night, with the sparkling clean light on.


Where we started about 2 weeks ago, with a pH <=4.5 and CYA >=200
 

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